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6 Tips for Growing Tomatoes
Over the past few years, I’ve picked up some valuable tips for growing tomatoes. This by no means implies that each summer I’m guaranteed a beautiful crop, and in fact am yearly frustrated by the usual problems – pests, disease, cracking, blossom end rot. These tips can help improve crops. 1. Pinch those suckers. Different gardeners will tell you different types of tomatoes should or shouldn’t have the suckers removed. If you are planting in a small space and deal with crowding, go ahead and pinch them to make sure to keep the growth in check and allow plenty of air movement around plants. My first crop of indeterminate tomatoes…
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Bone Meal
I made a genius discovery this week, perhaps several. By genius, I mean that I pulled a dumb gardener stunt. Last year, I used Alaska brand liquid fertilizers and fish emulsion on the seedlings for phosphorus, but this year, as my favorite plant store is closed on Sundays, I found myself at Lowes where the only liquid fertilizer options were of the electric blue, just add water nature. Most options on the shelves were geared towards Nitrogen (Lowes shoppers really love green leaves and green lawns, I suppose). So I grabbed a bag of bone meal, which published a higher P value than N value. At home, I swished it…
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Super Sow Sunday
Super Sow Sunday. Well…. I was all set to do my indoor seeding next weekend, and my Twitter feed blew up with #SuperSowSunday. Not wanting to miss out on the fun, Scooby and I planted one type of tomato in our plastic egg crate and peat pods. Earlier this week, we had some spring-like weather and planted peas, carrots, turnips, onions, and more garlic. I plan on doing more tomatoes and peppers indoor next weekend, but we are out of the trays, so the dirty fun is over for this evening. Quick tips for indoor seeding! Seed starting kits are perfect if you haven’t been saving up your clear egg…
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Treehouse on a Low Budget
For months now, Scooby has been talking about building a tree house. We’ve had a tree picked out for a year, but no funds to build it. This past weekend, we went to the Habitat for Humanity ReStore center to find some free or cheap lumber so I could build a raised bed for fall and winter lettuces. We ended up finding up to 16′ long 2″x 8″, 10″ and 12″ boards for $1 each. I also sent out a Facebook blast asking if any friends had free lumber scraps they were looking to unload. That lead to three pallets in good condition, a whole pile of decking slats, and…
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Caramelized Cherry Tomatoes in Olive Oil
There is no doubt in my mind that fresh tomato and basil is the official taste of the summer. I can understand the argument for watermelon, especially as I have friends who live for Cookout’s seasonal watermelon milkshake, but there is nothing that compares with some homemade bread topped with pesto and cherry tomatoes. Our garden is currently overrun with two things: climbing squash vines on which no squash are currently growing and cherry tomato plants – Matt’s Wild Cherry to be exact. I don’t like killing volunteers, and anyone who has grown cherry tomatoes for more than one season knows that there are plenty of cherry tomato volunteers. I…
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Persimmon Tomato
This is our first summer growing Persimmon tomatoes. The description from Burpee’s was spot on: “A heirloom originally from Russia, this beefsteak type has very large, persimmon-colored 1 lb. fruits. Uniform and blemish-free, the tomatoes have high flavor, low acidity, and a small cavity. Performs well in short-season areas. Indeterminate. Harvest about 80-96 days after transplant.” The color is really beautiful, and my husband actually thought I was making peach cobbler when he saw the pan of chopped tomatoes. I didn’t find this tomato to be very sweet, but it was full of flavor and a little tart. There were few seeds and it was quite meaty. I didn’t do…
